Gold/Silver

[Gator By Marriage]

Sorry, didn't pick up on the facetiousness. I do think a person would be better off in a doomsday scenario by having guns and ammo instead of silver and gold, but even better might be to have some of both.

An old prepper friend of mine used to say something about "beans, bullets, bullion, and band-aids" as being the necessities in a SHTF scenario. I hadn't thought about that in awhile until this thread. :)

A buddy of mine once sent me a video of a guy we both knew, who was a prepper. (It's on youtube somewhere.) He and his family, among other, uh....interesting habits, were burying ammo cans filled with nickels. Apparently nickels are (or were - this was almost 10 years ago) worth their weight in metal. I have no idea how accurate (or sane) this is.........

 

[no1g8r]

A buddy of mine once sent me a video of a guy we both knew, who was a prepper. (It's on youtube somewhere.) He and his family, among other, uh....interesting habits, were burying ammo cans filled with nickels. Apparently nickels are (or were - this was almost 10 years ago) worth their weight in metal. I have no idea how accurate (or sane) this is.........

A few years back, when all of the best rechargeable batteries were made with Nickel, the price of nickel went up. The melt value of a nickel was hovering between 5 and 6 cents, and many folks were thinking it would soon doublle. They were equating it to the surge in sliver prices that made silver coins (what we call "junk silver" now) worth more than face value.

It didn't happen.

But even knowing that, a nickel is the currently minted coin that comes the closest, by far, to having a metals melt value that is near it's face value.

 

[bradgator2]

That's pretty interesting about the pre1982 pennies.

Half dollars made between 1965 and 1970 were 40% silver. I actually have some very distance memories of around 1980 of heading the bank with dad and he would buy a $1000 bag of half dollars. We'd go through them one by one and would always find a handful of those. Then he'd simply deposit that $1000 bag (and make up the few bucks) back into his account. It was literally free silver.

 

[bradgator2]

This is a great calculator for silver melt value:

U.S. Silver Coin Melt Value Calculator - Coinflation

So for example: a roll ($5) of 1964 dimes is worth $56 at today's silver price of $15.40.

I can find them for about $65 on ebay. $62.50 on Apmex if you wire the money. So we are not talking huge money. Naturally, the % fee goes down if you start getting into larger purchases.

 

[Detroitgator]

That's pretty interesting about the pre1982 pennies.

Half dollars made between 1965 and 1970 were 40% silver. I actually have some very distance memories of around 1980 of heading the bank with dad and he would buy a $1000 bag of half dollars. We'd go through them one by one and would always find a handful of those. Then he'd simply deposit that $1000 bag (and make up the few bucks) back into his account. It was literally free silver.

Did the same with my Dad as a kid plucking out the pre-1965 dimes and quarters @90%. There were still plenty in early 70's. Same with the half-dollars you mention.

 

[Detroitgator]

This is a great calculator for silver melt value:

U.S. Silver Coin Melt Value Calculator - Coinflation

So for example: a roll ($5) of 1964 dimes is worth $56 at today's silver price of $15.40.

I can find them for about $65 on ebay. $62.50 on Apmex if you wire the money. So we are not talking huge money. Naturally, the % fee goes down if you start getting into larger purchases.

As I mentioned, APMEX sell bags of "junk" silver (defined as pre-1965 at 90% silver) dimes and quarters in round amounts. That's a barter bag.

 

[GatorInGeorgia]

A buddy of mine once sent me a video of a guy we both knew, who was a prepper. (It's on youtube somewhere.) He and his family, among other, uh....interesting habits, were burying ammo cans filled with nickels. Apparently nickels are (or were - this was almost 10 years ago) worth their weight in metal. I have no idea how accurate (or sane) this is.........

Kyle Bass (hedge fund manager) did the same thing several years ago. I think he may have also done the same with pennies. Not sure how it worked out for him but in light if it being illegal to melt US coins I’m not sure it makes sense.

Redirect Notice

 

[Politigator]

To quote Buffett about precious metals:

"Gold gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again, and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility."

Doesn't pay a dividend either.

I think he added that if there were Martians and they came to earth and saw us doing that they'd think we were crazy.

I have a very small amount of GLD and silver ETF (at least small compared to portfolio ). It isn't enough to do any good so I may just sell it. It is the only thing I own that has gone down.

In theory, you can make a case for gold as portfolio diversifier in the very long run, but it's utility as a hedge is very irratic and takes a great deal of fortitude to hold it for decades sometimes with no real appreciation.

I'm kind of skeptical of gold being of value in the coming zombie apocalypse. Im not sure how you liquidate it safely and efficiently. Perhaps if you had bags of old silver coins.

The following is a pretty objective and thorough analysis of the case for gold.

The Golden Dilemma